Workbook · 14 August 2025
A practical way to see where data goes
Updated 24 September 2026. The only number that describes your line is the counter on your phone. Everything else on this page is a way to interpret it.
Step 1
Open the phone’s settings and look for Mobile data, Cellular, or Data usage. The labels move when the system updates, so search those words if the menu has shifted. Note the total for the current period and which apps sit at the top. Do this on Wi-Fi if you are worried that the act of looking is itself expensive; opening settings is trivial next to a video.
On many iPhones the period is under Settings, then Mobile Service or Cellular. On many Android phones it is under Settings, then Network and internet, SIMs, or Data usage. If your menus differ, the search box inside Settings is the reliable tool.
Step 2
Use this ladder only as a comparison of tasks. It is not a measurement of any Moroccan network, and your app’s quality setting will move the amounts. Where a range appears, it is a rough industry span for planning, not a reading from a cell in Casablanca.
- LightestA text or an email without attachments. A one-minute voice note is still small beside a video, often well under a megabyte, though the app’s bitrate decides.
- ModestMaps as you move, music at a lower quality, a few photos sent one at a time. Across an afternoon this is visible on the counter and rarely the whole monthly bundle by itself.
- HeavyA video call, both directions. At ordinary phone quality, think in hundreds of megabytes per hour, sometimes around half a gigabyte to well over one, depending on the app. An hour dominates an evening.
- HeaviestHigh-resolution streaming, a cloud photo backup of a holiday, and system updates. A film on a laptop through a hotspot belongs here. These are the transfers that finish a bundle while the owner remembers only the message they meant to send.
Check the range against your own counter after one real call. If your app used far less or far more, believe the counter. The ladder was only there to tell you which activity to suspect.
Step 3
Look for the switches that spend data without a tap: automatic app updates, photo backup, high-quality video uploads, and a hotspot left on for a laptop. Point the heavy ones at Wi-Fi. Leave the messages alone. The ordinary-day note explains why a spinning backup feels like a “bad network.”
For a video call with someone you love, lower the quality inside the app if a menu offers it, sit somewhere the call has worked before, and agree that a voice call is the fallback. Love is not required to travel in high definition. The fallback ritual is in staying close.
Two counters, and a roaming line that is a third
Phones keep a Wi-Fi total and a mobile-data total. A large Wi-Fi number does not touch a mobile bundle. A large mobile number does. Read the heading above the list before you panic. On a dual-SIM phone, read the total for the line you think you are using: the home SIM and the Moroccan SIM each have a counter, and a video call follows the line set for mobile data.
Roaming is yet another bucket. A day near Ceuta or Melilla, or the hours after landing before the phone attaches to a Moroccan network, can spend a roaming allowance while you believe you are “just in Morocco.” The network name in the status bar is the check. If it is not the operator you pay in Morocco, open the roaming counter before you stream. Operator apps sometimes show a bonus, a night allowance, or a social-app zero-rating that the phone’s own counter still counts as data. When the two displays disagree, ask the operator. Their rule is the one on the bill. Ours is only a way to look.
A ten-minute weekly reset
- Read the counter and the top three apps.
- Finish or pause any backup you do not need on mobile data.
- Download the playlist or the map you will want on the road.
- Tell the household if a shared plan is approaching its allowance, before the last evening of the month.
What this page cannot see
We cannot read your balance, and we do not want the password that would let anyone else read it. If the counter and the operator’s app disagree, believe a conversation with that operator over a paragraph here. Offers, bonuses, and night-time allowances change. The habit of looking does not.